Follow our American family of 4 (+ one dog) as we begin our new life in Lillehammer, Norway.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Good news from NOKUT

A little piece of good news arrived in our mailbox on Friday. NOKUT, the Nasjonalt organ for kvalitet i utdanningen (aka Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education), after nearly five months of deliberation, decided that my American bachelor's degree and master's degree are equivalent to a Norwegian bachelor's and master's. Actually, they ruled that my master's degree is in fact superior to a Norwegian master's degree, by 30 studiepoeng (essentially 30 credits). All in all, my 6 years of education amounts to 5.5 years of Norwegian higher education, as "det første studieåret av en høyere utdanning fra USA kan ikke godkjennes som høyere utdanning i Norge" (the first study year of higher education from the USA can not be approved as higher education in Norway). This is because high school in Norway takes a student through 13 grades, and college (a 3-year process) begins at the age of 19, not 18 as it does in the US.

So yes, this was good news, but in the end probably not terribly important. NOKUT just puts the stamp of approval on my degree, not the actual content of the education (i.e. comparing my nursing degree to a Norwegian nursing degree) or my nursing or midwifery licenses. For that we continue to wait for SAFH (State authority on health personnel), who stated the appeal process might take a month or more.

Incidentally, for anyone who is going through or contemplating going through this process, NOKUTs website stated this evaluation could be a four month process, and in fact it was nearly five months. Considered yourself forewarned. . .

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Who am I, really?

The Other Players

Erik: my sweet husband, a native Minnesotan with Norwegian ancestry. Lived in Voss and Trondheim, Norway from 1994-1996, and vowed to return. Once a competitive cross-country ski racer, now with a PhD under his belt and behind his name, he found a job that brought us all to Norway. Mission Accomplished.

Greta: our cheery 7 year old daughter, born in New England, moved to Norway at the age of 2.5 years and quickly became bilingual. Never stops drawing or reading, unless I tell her to put it down and pick up her violin.

Henrik: our newest addition, born in Lillehammer in February 2013, but still 100% American blooded and loves Elmo, tractors and cranes.

Tika: our 10 year old, 80lb Weimaraner/Black Lab hunk of a dog, who bravely faced her fears of confined spaces and loud noises and flew across the Atlantic Ocean in a drug-induced haze, and lived to bark about it. Loves tennis balls, long runs in the woods, and these gross dried fish treats we've found here.